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Hey guys! Apparently Microsoft just bought a URL, www.xbox8.com. They haven't done anyhting with, but own it. One thing though, the Xbox 720 may be called the Xbox 8. Yet, I reasoned in my mind. If it's true that history repeats itself, then this'll make sense. Right now, they use www.xbox.com. Although, the current Xbox model, is the Xbox 360. If I'm right, then they'll keep using www.xbox.com for the next gen. Then, again, what explains the www.xbox8.com purchase? Maybe they didn't want anyone else using that URL since it has the Xbox name? I don't know...

Recently it was reported that Sony will not be making the PS4 compatible was used games and speculation began if the same thing will happen to the next gen Xbox and it seems that it going that way too and not only that user will be required a constant internet connection to operate the console. So as well as not being able to play used next gen games does this also mean the next gen Xbox won't be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games and will we not be able to play our beloved games like Halo 3, Reach, Halo 4 and many others on the new xbox? Well there is a possibility that the feature that prevents used games to be played will only be aimed at next gen games, or it could be like the 360 only selected games will be playable on the new console or the whole backward compatibility could be wiped out completely. This article is from Examiner With the expected announcement of Sony's next-generation console, the PS4, coming later this month, today we have acquired a few new details regarding Sony's direct competitor, Microsoft's Xbox 720. Through the information that was delivered in an article posted by Edge Online today, it seems that Microsoft's Xbox 720 will require users to have a constant Internet connection to operate the device. Along with the always online function, the Xbox 720 will completely eliminate the used game market. It is stated that Microsoft will still make physical copies of software available with the use of 50 GB capacity Blu-ray discs. These discs will be supplied with a one-time activation code and will be useless after this code has been used. Since Microsoft is targeting the online delivery model, it is stated that the Xbox 720 will have a sizable hard drive shipped with the system. Continuing to drive for the use of motion control, the Xbox 720 will be shipped with a new Kinect device bundled with the system. It is stated that this device will be much more responsive than the original Kinect. View full article

Lately a rumor has popped up about Halo coming to Steam...Microsoft has announced that this is not happening. The folowing is from an article on Kotaku.com Source This weekend, many noticed something curious: some Halo titles were listed in the Steam registry. Some assumed this meant that these titles were coming to Steam. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, that’s not the case. “We currently do not have plans to release any ‘Halo‘ titles on Steam,” said a Microsoft spokesperson to Kotaku. Sceptical? I wouldn’t blame you. When folks say there aren’t any plans, it sometimes actually means “not yet.” It’s worth noting that, unlike other titles which have now been confirmed — like Dyad — Halo 2 and Halo 3 pages were almost immediately taken down and can no longer be accessed. Maybe that means something. Maybe not.

Quite a few specs report have surfaced over the past month or so and each one has been fairly similar but each have a few minor differences from others. So for those who have been keep themselves up to date with next gen news then you probably have a good idea of what to expect from the next Xbox. So here we have another specs reports but this time its is a detailed diagram of the hardware of the next Xbox. This diagram and report is from vgleaks. CPU: - x64 Architecture - 8 CPU cores running at 1.6 gigahertz (GHz) - each CPU thread has its own 32 KB L1 instruction cache and 32 KB L1 data cache - each module of four CPU cores has a 2 MB L2 cache resulting in a total of 4 MB of L2 cache - each core has one fully independent hardware thread with no shared execution resources - each hardware thread can issue two instructions per clock GPU: - custom D3D11.1 class 800-MHz graphics processor - 12 shader cores providing a total of 768 threads - each thread can perform one scalar multiplication and addition operation (MADD) per clock cycle - at peak performance, the GPU can effectively issue 1.2 trillion floating-point operations per second High-fidelity Natural User Interface (NUI) sensor is always present Storage and Memory: - 8 gigabyte (GB) of RAM DDR3 (68 GB/s) - 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM (ESRAM) (102 GB/s) - from the GPU’s perspective the bandwidths of system memory and ESRAM are parallel providing combined peak bandwidth of 170 GB/sec. - Hard drive is always present - 50 GB 6x Blu-ray Disc drive Networking: - Gigabit Ethernet - Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct Hardware Accelerators: - Move engines - Image, video, and audio codecs - Kinect multichannel echo cancellation (MEC) hardware - Cryptography engines for encryption and decryption, and hashing View full article

I have had problems with this for ages my retailer promised the code and didnt give me it when i preordered back then I was younger and dint like to cause a fuss about anything, however I really want it now and have scoured the internet from my retailer to microsoft to the halo site to bungie to here and no answers everyone keeps bumping me please let this be the end of this trail. I just need a code given to me or a license given to me or something. Basically it was obviously years ago when i preordered the game and now the retailer has deleted my purchase off of their files and have no record of me buying however they assured me microsoft could help, microsoft spent a long time discussing the matter with associates and bumped me towards a halo community site, i posted a forum thread there and i was bumpedd to a bungie site, posted a forum thread there and I was finally bumped here. I was assured by all that the next could give me the code I was promised but so far nothing. Please somebody put me in touch with someone in 343i that can give support or can pass me to someone who will definetly be able to give me the code, or a license on XBL to download the content... thanks for any helpful responses

This article is from Now Gamer. All credit to Sykowolf for finding this. Rumours surrounding the Xbox 720 and the PS4 are coming thick and fast these days - all part of the exciting build up to next-gen, naturally - but the latest tech specs revealed by an insider could be the most detailed yet. An industry insider - it's not clear if they are a developer or someone else - has revealed a number of specific details about both the PS4 and the Xbox 720. Though these things should always be taken with a pinch of salt until something official is announced, the technicality and sheer wealth of the information certainly makes them sound convincing - especially when they collaborate so many previous rumours.We'll include a technical glossary at the bottom of the page should you need to understand all acronyms. Sony's PS4 won't be capable of native 4K resolution According to the insider, the PS4 (or Omni) won't be capable of the proposed 4K resolution that new TVs are being developed for. "The thing about omni is it will upscale to 4K" claims the insider, adding that the image quality is "very low in regards to Durango [Xbox 720]". PS4 is having problems with overheating Though the insider does not seem to have seen the issues himself, he does mention that he had heard others claim that the "Starsha [dev] kits have very bad heating problems" because the GPU and the SOC aren't specialised enough - as is the case wit the Xbox 720. He then adds that he believes it is because Sony doesn't have enough money to devote to research and development, as it had done with the PS3's Cell processor. The PS4 will be called "Omni" and is in production soon Throughout the reveal the insider refers to Sony's PS4 with two names: Starsha and Omni. Starsha has been revealed as the name of the APU system inside the PS4. However, Omni is now believed to be the final name of the PS4. This was a rumour back in November 2012, and was said to represent Sony's approach to the console - namely, that it is capable of doing everything. The insider claimed that the final SDK for Sony's PS4 - or Omni - has been available since December 2012, adding that Sony is trying to launch its next-gen console ahead of Microsoft.The Starsha chipset is in fabrication process now, and is expected to enter mass production on the 23rd of January. As a point of interest, the insider claimed that Microsoft has only just got the Kryptos (Xbox 720) out to developers at the start of this month. If true, the rumours suggesting that Sony's next-gen console will launch as early as September 2013 could well be true. Along these lines, the insider claimed that Sony could reveal the PS4 on 5 Feb 2013. Xbox 720's "Oban" is a game changer for Microsoft The name Oban was revealed a couple of months back, and was believed to be the name of the chips onboard the Xbox 720. According to this insider, however, Oban is actually the name of the blitter inside the next-gen machine. A blitter is a system built into hardware designed to improve the speed at which data is transferred within the hardware's memory. It is a separate system from the CPU and can run parallel to it, moving large amounts of data relatively quickly. The Xbox 720 will be a 356-bit system - compared to the PS4's 256-bit system - and is capable of 550GB of data per second. The insider claims it is designed for raytracing, and with the Oban and the higher bus speed of the GPU this will put it on top in terms of technical prowess. Xbox 720 is designed for ray tracing technology Ray tracing is a high-end lighting technology that isn't widely used in games today. Unlike the current dynamic lighting system - which recreates the effects of lighting - ray tracing emulates the science of light. In other words, more realistic reflections and refractions can be created to create more realistic looking lighting. The problem is it's a very intensive technology that takes a very long time to render and is primarily used in Pixar films. If the Xbox 720 is as powerful as this suggests, then ray tracing will be more possible with the hardware. The insider claims that Microsoft has designed the Xbox 720 with ray tracing in mind, however admits that "the hardest part will be for studios to work with ray traced graphics enabled engines." For those interested, here's a video of last year's GTC conference where NVidia highlighted some of its ray tracing technology: PS4 Tech Specs An APU with a fast GPU. 4GB of DDR3 RAM. 4GB of GDDR5 RAM. CPU is an x86 system with 256-bit bus. A more off the shelf design than the modded Xbox 720. "We all feel Omni is more of a pc in it design." Capable of 3.2TFlops of data. Xbox 720 Tech Specs Three SOCs in one console. Two "Venus" models, and one "Mars". 8GB RAM, with 1GB devoted to operating system. Audio DSP 2 of Venus SOC - Application SOC GPU AMD 8900 spec GPU clocked at 800mhz with 10000HD series future tech 4 core CPU is clocked @ 2.5GHz 1.5 Gb of GDDR5 ram on each SOC (total 3GB) clocked @ 1.2Ghz Common factors 4GB of DDR4 RAM with 384 bit bus Ray tracing chip High speed blitter with 510 GB/s bandwidth between SOCs EDRAM Power brick is 300 watts, but SDKs are looking at 230 watts used. Capable of 4.2TFlops of data Next-Gen PS4 & Xbox 720 Tech Glossary APU = Accelerated Processing Unit. A hardware system that includes an additional method of processing. In this case, a CPU with a GPU built in. CPU = Central Processing Unit. The primary processing function of a machine. GPU = Graphics Processing Unit. The system used to process and generate the visuals of a game. SOC = System On Chip. A method of combining all the processing functions (CPU, GPU, etc) onto a single chip. Largely used for mobiles and tablets, but increasingly popular for consoles. Omni = One of the proposed final names for the PS4. Starsha = The rumoured name of the chips on board the PS4. Thebes = The internal codename for the PS4. View full article

The next generation systems from both PlayStation and Microsoft will retail at the $350-$400 range, a games analyst has claimed. This article is from CVG Basing his numbers partially on off-the-record meetings with "a number of companies" at CES 2013, analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research said the new consoles will likely sit around the $400 range. In 2005, Microsoft retailed its Xbox 360 premium bundle at $400, while one year later Sony was at the centre of controversy for offering the premium PS3 system at $599. The rumoured next-gen price points, if accurate, would imply that both Sony and Microsoft are willing to sell their systems at higher losses to appear to an increasingly diversified market. "Given the fragile state of the console game market, we expect the E3 trade show in June will take on added significance, most likely providing the industry with the first public opportunity to examine next-generation hardware," Sebastian wrote in his notes. "Our checks suggest that next-generation console hardware will be largely built from 'off the shelf' high-end PC components, along with hybrid physical/digital distribution models, enhanced voice controls and motion sensing (Kinect integration with every Xbox), and broad multi-media capabilities," he added. "Moreover, a PC-based architecture (Intel chips in the case of Xbox) should have a number of advantages over custom-developed silicon: for one, the learning curve for software developers will be shorter than completely new technology. "Second, the cost of production and retail price points should be lower than prior console launches. "Third, it will be easier to build online services around PC chip architecture, including flexible business models (free-to-play, subscriptions) and multi-media (over the top) content offerings. For Microsoft, this design will also allow for moreintegration with Windows 8 and Windows Mobile devices." View full article

Microsoft has been showing of it's new technology at CES, it is called "Xbox IllumiRoom". What it does is make your entire room part of the TV screen, your walls will show the content that breaches the edges of your TV and acts as an extension to your screen. More details below. Article and videos are from IGN. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHV4nclMdGc During Samsung’s keynote at CES today, Microsoft unveiled IllumiRoom, a new technology that turns the entire room around your TV into an extension of the screen. As explained on Microsoft’s official site, IllumiRoom uses Kinect and a projector “to blur the lines between on-screen content and the environment we live in allowing us to combine our virtual and physical worlds.” Microsoft explains that IllumiRoom “augments the area surrounding a television screen with projected visualizations to enhance the traditional living room entertainment experience” and “can change the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view, and enable entirely new game experiences." Kinect captures the geometry of a room and adapts projected visuals “in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoUGRGjG07E In a video demo shown off during Samsung’s keynote, Microsoft showed off several different applications of the technology, noting that the footage was “captured live and is not the result of any special effects added in post production.” IllumiRoom appears to be the realization of the immersive display experience Microsoft patented last year, which aimed to make gaming “more realistic” and eliminating “out of context images” that sit next to your TV. Whether or not IllumiRoom will tie-in with next Xbox or the next generation of Kinect remains to be seen, but Microsoft says more details will be revealed at the ACM SIGCHI Conference in Paris in April. View full article

The complete Halo 4 OST and Remix's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6HQteJNk3A Track list: 01. Awakening - 0:00:00 02. Belly of the Beast - 0:05:41 03. Requiem - 0:08:23 04. Legacy - 0:10:39 05. Faithless - 0:13:11 06. Nemesis - 0:18:20 07. Haven - 0:21:53 08. Ascendancy - 0:27:40 09. Solace - 0:32:02 10. To Galaxy - 0:36:52 11. Immaterial - 0:41:47 12. 117 - 0:49:25 13. Arrival - 0:56:52 14. Revival - 1:02:28 15. Green and Blue -1:09:46 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOI-5Eek_EA Track list: 01. Awakening (Gui Boratto Remix) - 0:00:00 02. Green and Blue (KOAN Remix) - 0:07:23 03. Requiem (Bobby Tank Remix) - 0:11:26 04. Ascendancy (Matt Lange Remix) - 0:17:02 05. To Galaxy (Sander Van Doorn & Julian Jordan Remix) - 0:22:07 06. Haven (Hundred Waters Remix) - 0:28:57 07. Revival (DJ Skee & THX Remix) - 0:33:20 08. Ascendancy (Caspa Remix) - 0:37:00 09. Nemesis (Alvin Risk Remix) - 0:40:55 10. Solace (Maor Levi Remix) - 0:45:36 11. Arrival (Norin & Rad Remix) - 0:52:54 12. Green and Blue (Andrew Bayer Remix) - 0:56:55 13. Foreshadow (James Iha Remix) - 1:00:22 14. The Beauty of Cortana (Apocalyptica vs Neil Davidge) - 1:03:14 This post has been promoted to an article

I preordered halo 4 from Best Buy, and they sent me the bonus skins to my email. But I never used them until now, so I go to my email and guess what? Because hotmail hasn't been used in a long time, they deleted EVERYTHING. Is there anyway I could get it back?

Many people, myself included had a huge hype for the release of Halo 4. If only then I knew what I had known now I could have saved myself $60 and a trip to a midnight release. Before flaming immediately after seeing the title, please, at least here me out. Flashback to November, 15, 2011. Microsoft and 343i had just released its first Halo game (with 343i being a separate company, respectively). Halo: CEA was released in North America and was sold on the shelves for a mere $40. But the price had nothing on game itself, right? The original Halo, just with better graphics and sound quality. Sounded great to me. But as a gamer, I wouldn't be doing my job if I hadn't poked out the flaws. And please, let me take a minute to explain. Hating and nitpicking flaws are COMPLETELY different. Don't know the difference? Google it. Back to the matter at hand. I remember playing the first Halo as a kid, I only played at my cousins place, because my parents had refused to buy me an Xbox (they thought the games were too violent, so I showed them Madhouse on the Wii when it came out years later). Nonetheless, I went from Banjo Kazooie, Mario 64, and the LoZ series (which are GREAT games, by the way) to shooting my way through any situation I saw fit. Halo ALONE stood above as the mighty grandeur of most of my gaming experiences. This led on to me playing Halo 3, CoD 4 and WaW (I did play Halo 2, just not online). All of which I highly regard to as great games to a modern era. You know what all of these games have in common? If you guessed 'A player progression system' then step up to get your prize. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING could compare to the feeling that I got once I hit General in Halo 3 or when I prestiged in CoD 4. I just had this sense of accomplishment where I knew that I had something that few people had. I don't really remember CE having any online capabilities (I may be wrong), but I do know it had Custom Games. CEA; however, failed to deliver an online experience, let alone Custom Games. To save myself a few words, I'll say this: The same can be said for Halo 4. Like I previously stated, I enjoy ranking up and proving my worth, which would explain why I love games like WoW and GW2. I'm getting sidetracked. Now onto Halo 4, or should I say the burden of my Halo experience. Flashforward to November 6, 2012. I'm standing in a line at Gamestop waiting to get my copy of Halo 4. Line number, 122. Not too bad I guess. After driving home and changing my pants, I popped Halo 4 into the disc tray of my 360 and ran it from the dashboard. Let's start with the Campaign. I played this first as it is simply my tradition to experience the story line before anything else. Let me be the first to say, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD this was purely amazing! Campaign was probably my favorite aspect, I beat it twice. Once to test the waters and a second time for Legendary Solo. Only I have a few problems. 343, to my dismay had lied in saying that Halo 4's legendary mode would be the hardest yet. I beat it; solo, mind you, in less than a day. I'm not that great at Campaign, especially Halo. I expected this to make me break a controller, not sit through in boredom as the derpy AI wandered around like nothing happened after I clearly assassinated a Promethean Knight. On the plus side, being able to see a little bit of Master Chief's face was MORE than promising. The game felt like a Sci-Fi shooter, like it should. However, this shouldn't give 343 the right to take the humor out of Halo. Even playing through the entire Campaign with IWHBYD on, I found no humorous remarks from the Covenant (I expected no real humor out of the Prometheans, mind you). Just growling most of the time. I also find myself running out of ammunition when it's most needed. Anyway, enough with Campaign (I gave it a 9/10). Onto the prominent Spartan Ops. A replacement for the classic Firefight experience, you play as the infamous Crimson team while playing through multiple missions, each with their own chapters and objectives. It's an interesting change; however, I would like to have seen a separate custom loadouts for Spartan Ops. Having to change constantly for Spartan Ops and War Games is a chore that should never have to be done. Here's an idea, have different roles for Spartan Ops. Each loadout would express a different role that could be fulfilled be the player. Heavy Weapons, Assault, Sniper, etc. Just a suggestion, of course. Now, herein lies the problem with Spartan Ops. The connectivity between players feels like the Ethernet cords were replaced with licorice. I can connect (with full bars, err, green bar, rather) to people when in Custom Games or Forge, and still lag like crazy when in Spartan Ops. It's like I'm being forced to play on LAN to enjoy the experience. With about a year in Computer Networking and mostly logical thinking, it can only be 343's servers that fail to support anything. Replaying the same map for missions can be a bit annoying too, unless it's like Mission 4 (or 5, I can't really remember) where you're on Ragnarok for 2-3 chapters and it actually follows a decent story pattern to it. War Games. Matchmaking for any fellow Halo vets. I could go on about this for ages, but to sum it up, I hate it. I hate the fact that I HAVE to hate it. This shouldn't exist, and I feel like it's a monstrosity to the competitiveness Halo used to bring. Whine and cry about Reach as it may be, but at least Reach could support an MLG playlist. Or any playlist for that matter. Halo 2, from what I've collected, had a Clan Battle playlist. That's perfect for clans who want to warm up before a GB match or something. For weapons, one precision weapon for UNSC is fine enough, thank you. Not two, is that concept so difficult to understand? Was 343 even thinking about the competitive community? Probably not. Reach brought about the concept of Armor Abilities, which most people hated. Any hate was usually directed for only one reason in particular, Armor Lock. Personally, I always used Sprint. I like to get to objectives and places around the map quickly. AA's were the only thing that really put someone at an edge over the other player (not including weapons, of course. I'm just talking about the traits at spawn). Now, in response to this, Halo 4 added not only Armor Abilities (which I find myself almost never using,) but perks as well. Perks? PERKS? Are you serious 343? If War Games had a CoD label on it, it would be the most balanced CoD out on the market (certainly better than BO:II). But why put a Halo label on this? Spawning with the same thing as everyone else had was just fine. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy change as much as the next guy. Repeating a similar multiplayer pattern gets old and boring. But this is not the way to do it 343! If you want some change that's fine, but don't change the game mechanics! Team Slayer Pro has little to no player base, and changing loadouts simply shouldn't be in Halo. Look at Reach's response to Armor Abilities, it was horrible. And the addition of having everyone have sprint is absolutely fine, I in fact welcome it with open arms. This doesn't give 343 the right to add perks. If they wanted a perk system, they could have made slight, minuscule differences that had a slight impact on the game. Like maybe 105% movement speed, or maybe a slight increase in the duration of sprint, not unlimited. 2 primary weapons in a loadout? No. Get rid of it. Awareness? Leave this game. More grenades? Kill yourself. Increased Explosives radius and less damage received? (Insert sarcastic smile, obviously indicating anger here) Better yet, let's throw in a carbon copy of a CoD perk! Oh, what's it called? Sleight of Hand maybe? Yeah that's the one. 343, grow some originality, or at least fire your multiplayer development team, and make a multiplayer system that makes me not want to throw up. Finally, Forge (I'm not dealing with Theater, that failed after Halo 3 due to no multiplayer viewing options). Forge seems much worse than compared to in Reach. Dynamic lighting and magnets were all that 343 brought to the table as major changes to Forge. That's great, but provide no decent maps to forge on and the whole system falls apart. Not only is the Magnet system feel uncomfortable, but the Coordinate system feels odd too! And precision editing? Nope! Zooming in while in monitor mode? Ha! Nope! In terms of maps, Ravine is horrible. I can't find a place to put anything anywhere. The Promethean structure half shouldn't be there. The moon base is equally full of stupid-syndrome. I just want Forge World back. I'd rather have one large map to forge on rather than 3 dysfunctional maps with no real purpose. Custom Games just feels dull since 343 copied most of what made Reach's custom games a bit derpy. Like the Camo system. That ruined Ghostbusters, my favorite custom game in H3. The jump scares were really fun! Now it's just like "Oh, you're there.." I tried making a paintball-esque Custom Game in Halo 4. It was okay, but there were no good maps to play it on. Why take away the freedom, fun, and creativity from Halo? I forged quite a bit on both H3 and Reach. Both were decent in their own respects. Foundry. Am I right, or am I right? Sandbox was pretty cool, along with the other maps that had skulls on them. Nice touch, Bungie. Above all, I feel like Halo 4 fixed a few of the big mistakes but made a LOT of smaller ones in its path. Graphics only add to the overall atmosphere of a game. And I feel like 343 focused on only that. The appeal to the atmosphere, rather the gameplay. Reach had a sort of grunge look/feel to it. The dirty armor truly made me feel like a war torn Spartan. And that's what Halo is about, right? Hate on me if you will, I've come to accept that my opinion isn't very welcome. At least think of this: Are you defending this game so much because you like it, or because it simply says "Halo" on the cover? I am actually enthralled to hear someone else's opinion on this. I never really addressed my concern with Halo 4's ranking system. After hitting 50 and passing into your first specialization, it's easy to rank up until rank 5-6 of your specialization. It then follows a repeated pattern after hitting 60. Choose the specialization, it's easy then it gets really difficult. There's no sense in that at all. Just wanted to point that out.

Source: Examiner With the next-generation of Xbox comes the chance that gamers will start to see less and less titles than they currently are, but some people still see the next-generation as a chance for smaller developers to get their games out to the masses. According to a report from GamesIndustry today, Double Fine's Tim Schafer did acknowledge that the next-generation of consoles could provide some challenges to smaller studios. "Our fear was that next generation was going to be only big AAA games. It was only going to be a place for 'Call of Duty' and 'Halo.' "But we've talked to [the console manufacturers], and told people what things would be hard for teams our size with regards to consoles," Schafer said. Schafer went on to say if next-generation systems can open up something like what Steam currently offers, then it could something independent developers can work with. "We'd still like to be active in that space, we care about consoles, but unless they open things up a lot more like what we have on Steam... if they opened things up more it would be a more friendly place from our perspective. "We've talked to them about this stuff, and you know, they hear us. "They're big companies and they can't make changes overnight, but I think they're taking all of that stuff into consideration. We'll have to see what happens," Schafer said. Independent developers are crucial to the gaming industry as they can come up with some of the best and most original content. Xbox 720 needs to find a way to accommodate independent developers because if not, they will simply stay on Steam. It isn't like they have nowhere to go. Microsoft needs to work to acquire that sector of the industry because most gamers will be a bit disappointed if consoles get reduced to receiving only 15 or 20 titles a year, as a result of smaller and indie developers staying with Steam. Even with all of the features and upgrades the system is suppose to have, it will mean nothing if the only titles that hit the system are the same franchises that we see each year. Personally, "Assassin's Creed" is great, but "Journey" was amazing, and those types of games refresh a gamer's mind for what a game should be. With those experiences lost, things could get a bit boring. Gaming has so much more to offer and with the exception of PC gaming, people should be able to access and play all of it on one system. Wasn't that the original idea behind gaming consoles? Developers providing one place where people can experience all types of games? It has yet to be seen what Microsoft will do with Durango, but they must find a way to incorporate indie gaming, since it is such a significant portion of the industry. Would you as a gamer be fine with just 15-20 AAA titles per year on your next-generation console, with no other option? It's hard to imagine core gamers would have any interest in this happening. View full article

Next gen Xbox and Playstation graphics impact will not be as big as the 360 & PS3? It may be the case. Read below for more details. Source: Examiner In an interview with VideoGamer on Tuesday, Cevat Yerli provided some interesting commentary in regards to the graphics of the PS4 and Xbox 720 next-generation systems. The CEO of Crytek revealed that the studio did not believe that the upcoming consoles won’t have the same visual impact as when the PS3 and Xbox 360 first launched. You can check out some concept renders of the PS4 and Xbox 720, as well as some screens from the upcoming multiplatform title, “Crysis 3,”. "The current generation consoles, when they launched, were far ahead compared to PC. But PC has caught up. With current generation consoles and what's on the horizon – new ones – due to the fact that the cost of CPU and memory are so much more expensive than they were in the past, it is simply impossible to have the same kind of impact on the console business; to be so far ahead of PC." View slideshow: Why PS4 and Xbox 720 won’t have the same graphics impact as PS3 and Xbox 360 Crytek is the developer behind “Crysis 3.” The latest video game from the “Crysis 3” will be published by Electronic Arts when it launches for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 gaming platforms in North America on Feb. 19, 2013. You can pre-order the first-person shooter in the following link: “Crysis 3” The PS4 and Xbox 720 consoles are expected by many to come out next year. View full article

Here are some of the latest details about the next gen Xbox and Playstation and explains the change of their codenames. All details below. Source: IGN While we've heard a range of speculation about the codenames of Sony and Microsoft's next-gen consoles, a new report is claiming to have outed them correctly for the first time, as well as revealing where their components are being manufactured. Be sure to remember that none of the below has been confirmed by either Sony or Microsoft so, until it is, take it all with a large pinch of salt. According to SemiAccurate, internal sources have revealed that Microsoft's next Xbox is is being developed as project "Kryptos". The report also asserts that, as we've heard previously, the AMD chip the console will run on is called Oban. Additionally, it seems that the manufacturing troubles with the chip that were threatening to derail the console's rumoured 2013 launch still haven't been cleared up, and Microsoft is running out of time to do so. While we've now heard about the Oban chip from several different sources, this is the first time that the "Kryptos" codename has been thrown into the mix. We've previously heard the next-gen Xbox referred to as Durango; indeed, development photos and a supposed early version of the dev kit for Microsoft's next console that was sold on eBay went under that moniker. So which is the real codename? Sadly, for now at least, we have no idea. Moving onto the console many are calling the PlayStation 4, it's apparently being referred to internally as project "Thebes". Once again, an AMD chip is meant to be at the centre of the console and this is planned to be produced at either Global Foundries or IBM. If true, this means the chip would enter production after Oban, meaning a projected release window for the PlayStation 4 would be sometime between spring and autumn 2013. Again this conflicts with some of the information we've previously heard; numerous sources have referred to the PS4 as Orbis. This new report doesn't offer much more in the way of what's inside Sony's next console, but thankfully we have an extensive report from November that offers quite a few unconfirmed details. View full article